He gave £150 to his online contact for an explosive with ‘lots of nails inside’

Haroon Syed, 19, could be sent to prison for life after planning to target ‘packed places in London’ including Oxford Street, Buckingham Palace on the anniversary of the fatal attack

Teenage terrorist Haroon Syed has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 16 years and six months at the Old Bailey for plotting to bomb an Elton John concert on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

The teenager plotted a nail bomb attack at Elton John's 50,000-capacity Hyde Park concert on the anniversary of 9/11.

He also planned to target ‘packed places in London’ including Oxford Street, Buckingham Palace on the anniversary of the fatal attack.

He used encrypted messaging app ‘Threema’ in a bid to source machine guns, pistols, suicide vests and bombs to launch an attack in the UK on the scale of the 7 July 2005 London bombings.

Syed hoped to take out loans to pay for weapons to carry out what he called ‘the opp’, but was forced to look for cheaper options, including a home made bomb, when the requests were refused.

He handed over £150 to his online contact, ‘Abu Yusuf’, with instructions to get hold of an explosive with ‘lots of nails inside’.

But Abu Yusuf was in fact an undercover security services officer and counter-terror cops raided Syed’s home in Hounslow, west London, on 8 September last year.

He “has been ordered to serve at least 16 1/2 years.”

After that, he will be 35 or 36. What then? Will he emerge from prison disabused of his jihadist proclivities? That’s extremely unlikely. Prisons are hotbeds of jihadist recruitment. He is likely to emerge even more fanatical and murderous than he is now.